Cognitive behavioral therapy for treating social anxiety includes three main types of strategies. Treatment almost always includes cognitive therapy and exposure to situations that cause fear in the patient. Sometimes, in addition to these techniques, social skills training is added. Cognitive Therapy The term "cognitive" refers to everything that concerns assumptions, beliefs, predictions, interpretations, visual images, memory and other mental processes that relate to thinking. The basic basis of cognitive therapy is that negative emotions arise because people interpret situations negatively or as threats. For example, if a person believes that others will judge him negatively, or if a person is overly concerned with the opinions of others, then he is simply bound to experience anxiety or discomfort in certain social situations. Cognitive therapy teaches a person to become more aware of their negative thoughts and replace them with realistic ones. People learn to view their beliefs as guesses about what might happen, rather than as facts. They are taught to look for evidence to support their worrying beliefs and to give alternative beliefs a chance by treating them as probable. So, for example, if a person is very hurt and angry because a friend did not call him back, these negative feelings may stem from the belief that the friend simply does not care about him. In cognitive therapy, this person would learn to consider alternative explanations for the friend's behavior, such as: the friend never received the message, forgot to call back, or went out of town. After all, there are many reasons why the friend was not able to call back quickly, even though he cares about his friend. At the beginning of treatment, anxious thoughts are recorded in diaries, contrasting them with more realistic forecasts and interpretations. As the client begins to feel more comfortable using the method of changing their unrealistic negative beliefs, the new ways of thinking are strengthened to the point of automaticity, and the need to keep a journal is eliminated. The client begins to manage his anxious thoughts even before they get out of control. control. Exposure therapy Exposure therapy suggests that a person gradually and constantly faces situations that frighten him, until they cease to be triggers that provoke this fear in him. In most cases, exposure is seen as a necessary component of CBT. In fact, exposure may be even more powerful than cognitive therapy in changing anxious negative thinking. By exposing yourself to situations that you fear, you will learn that the risk in such situations is minimal. Through direct experience, you realize that many of your alarming predictions and beliefs turned out to be wrong. You will also increase your tolerance (resilience) to situations about which some of your beliefs may be true (if someone is judging you). Finally, exposure therapy provides you with the opportunity to practice cognitive therapy techniques and improve any social skills that you may have lost by avoiding social situations over time. /Anthony, Swinson/